The animal world is colorful and diverse, there are species as beautiful as angels, but there are also species that mother nature gives an ugly appearance to the point of “bitter hate”. And the blobfish was voted the worst of them all.
The strange name of the teardrop fish
The title of “world’s ugliest animal” of the teardrop fish has even been recognized by a decent organization. In 2013, it won the contest to vote the ugliest animal on the planet organized by the Ugly Animal Conservation Association from the UK.
At the time, the association was looking for a mascot that could represent all animals whose unattractive appearance made them less of a concern than others. The association explained for its award: “Pandas have received too much attention”.
The contest results are not too controversial because most people have to admit that the teardrop fish has an impressive shape at first sight. It has pinkish milky white skin, blisters and swelling all over. When looking directly at the face, the teardrop fish is even more bizarre. This fish always looks like it is “blistered”.
Real form of “world’s ugliest animal”
Although famous for its ugly appearance, very few people know the truth about the shape of the teardrop fish. In fact, it is not as unsightly as in the images that we see.
This fish has the scientific name Psychrolutes marcidus, where the word “psychroloutes” in Greek means “cold bath”. Blobfish’s body is very strange and fragile like a drop of water, so they are named teardrop fish. The fish has milky white or pink skin but the face looks like a fat person’s face.
Psychrolutes marcidus is a deep-water fish that lives mainly off the coast of Australia, at altitudes between 600 and 1,200 meters above sea level. Down there, the pressure is 120 times higher than above ground. Humans wouldn’t be down there without high-powered submarines.
Because they live at much lower depths than most fish, dropfish must also have evolved to withstand the immense pressure on the seafloor. They have no bones or muscle tissue, and the meat is very tender.
When mature, the water drop fish reaches a maximum length of 30cm, the body is mainly a gelatinous mass and is lighter than water, so it can float on the seabed and withstand this pressure. Drops of water have the ability to expand to maintain buoyancy, so they can only move slowly. This disadvantage makes its feeding mainly based on surrounding creatures such as crustaceans, shrimp, and crabs. Droplet fish just need to open their mouth to wait for the food to flow into their mouth.
In particular, the teardrop fish is classified as one of the species with great maternal love. After laying millions of eggs, this fish will incubate for many months until the young are born. During that time, they just lay there, doing nothing.
Marine biologist Henry Reich said: “Unlike most fish, this deep-living fish does not have a fish bladder inside its body to be able to survive under extreme pressure. Super-deep fish usually have minimal skeletons and jelly-like meat.” Only then will the drop not be crushed by the pressure.
However, when removed from the familiar environment at a depth of thousands of meters on the seabed, the whole body of the released fish will immediately sag. Due to the sudden pressure difference, they will also be injured and sometimes internal organs rupture, eyes explode and d.i.e.
In other words, only when caught by humans, the fish will “puff” and become ugly and unsightly like what we have seen. And indeed when on the seabed, the environment belongs to it, the drop fish is not in such a bad shape as many other common fish.
When mature, the water drop fish reaches a maximum length of 30cm, the body is mainly a gelatinous mass and is lighter than water, so it can float on the seabed and withstand this pressure. Drops of water have the ability to expand to maintain buoyancy, so they can only move slowly. This disadvantage makes its feeding mainly based on surrounding creatures such as crustaceans, shrimp, and crabs. Droplet fish just need to open their mouth to wait for the food to flow into their mouth.
